Tennis : Nystrom, Arias Lose Indoors

Sixth-seeded Joakim Nystrom, ranked No. 11 in the world, and seventh-seeded Jimmy Arias, ranked No. 14, were upset in the second round of the $300,000 U.S. Pro Indoor tennis championship at Philadelphia Wednesday.

Nystrom, a member of Sweden’s victorious Davis Cup team, was beaten by Miloslav Mecir, the 1983 national champion of Czechoslovakia, 6-3, 6-7, 6-1.

Arias, who advanced to the final 16 at Wimbledon last year, fell to Mel Purcell, former University of Tennessee star, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4.

Mecir, 20, who finished 1984 ranked No. 60 in the world, got the jump on the 21-year-old Nystrom when he broke his service in the first game of the match and held serve the rest of the set.

He established set point with a backhand down the line and took the set when Nystrom’s attempted backhand passing shot went wide.

After losing the tiebreaker, 7-5, in the second set, Mecir won a service break in the first game of the deciding set and, later, swept the final four games of the match from 2-1.

The key break came in the fifth game when Mecir returned a serve that Nystrom couldn’t reach. The match ended when Nystrom netted a backhand.

In earlier third-round matches, 13th-seeded Ramesh Krishnan of India defeated Balazs Taroczy of Hungary, 6-3, 6-3, and Scott Davis ousted Michiel Schapers of the Netherlands, 6-3, 4-6, 6-1.

The winner of the title Sunday afternoon will get $54,000. The runner-up will receive $27,000.